This past weekend, 260 players showed up for MTG charity Tap for Hope’s tournament weekend in Portland, Oregon. It’s great to see events with such philanthropic impact break regional records. Just goes to show that huge prize pools alone won't attract players. Players show up when the event actually means something.

This week: the grindiest format just got grindier. Eisenherz breaks down a way to make your library bottomless so you can loop your interaction forever. The implications for stack wars are absurd.

We’re also doing a DuelSpec MECHFX dice giveaway in this issue. Details below.

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Trickbind, Artist's Talent, and Kozilek. The package built to win the longest, grindiest games in cEDH.

By Eisenherz

Over the last few weeks, I came across one of the most interesting pieces of cEDH tech I have seen in a long time.

The concept was developed by Sam Black, former MTG pro and one of the highest-ranked cEDH players in the world.

The idea is both surprisingly simple and absurdly efficient: The right combination of a split-second-spell, a Loot-Effect and a Shuffle-Titan allows you to basically infinitely recycle your whole library, which can be the deciding factor to win these long, grindy, midrange Rhystic-Matchups.

The current cEDH Meta – especially in the US – is incredibly grindy and focused around resolving as many card draw and mana engines as possible with cards like Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora and of course Smothering Tithe, as well as all the clone effects. Decks like Tymna Kraum and RogIshai try to generate huge resource-battles and endless stack-wars, in which the main question is no longer “Who’s the first to present their combo?”, but “Who can keep going the longest?”

This is where three fundamental problems ensue:

The solution is one of the most powerful mechanics ever printed: Split second.

Quick reminder: As long a split-second-spell is on the stack, players can’t cast spells and activate non-mana-abilities, but triggered abilities still trigger as usual.

In a meta that is shaped by draw engines and free interaction, split-second-spells can be viewed as a pseudo temporary Silence-effect, that can be exploited to create a bottomless library, by combining the following pieces:

The sequencing is both genius and elegant:

You have a loot effect in play and a shuffle titan in hand. Then, during a large stack war, you cast your split second spell.

Here is what happens:

In short:

Trickbind → Loot Trigger → Discard Titan → Shuffle Trigger → Reset Library

The result is huge: While your opponents are running out of resources, you can repeatedly reset your library and keep the stack war going for as long as you need. It gets even more absurd, if you start countering your own spells on the stack in order to reshuffle them into your library. Especially free interaction like Mindbreak Trap can now be recycled to deal with every spell your opponents have put on the stack.

This split-second-loot-shuffle-titan-combo solves all of the aforementioned problems that come with these extremely grindy games and huge stack wars. Unfortunately though, this tech as well comes with a few caveats that can’t be ignored.

Creating a “bottomless” deck is a very specific meta choice for grindy and long games in the top-cut.

It is less efficient in the swiss-rounds, because of much shorter round times and being confronted with more random and/or turbo decks. Additionally you need to dedicate at least 3-6 slots for these combo pieces that provide limited use outside of the actual combo. They are either too expensive or too low-impact to make the cut in a so-called “no bad cards”-list, making the deck more fragile in the early game and against a turbo-matchup, because your list will now be way more tuned for the resource battle instead of the being able to deal with faster opponents.

Nonetheless I think this approach is one of the most fascinating examples of modern deck-building in cEDH. It is the pinnacle of midrange-hell tech: highly specific and extremely meta focused, but at the same time strategically brilliant.

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Bold, metallic dice that land with the gravity and style of a mobile suit.

No more unclear damage and HP tracking. No more improvised status counters. No more loose dice to dig for. No more mediocre plastic.

Instead, you get a premium self-contained toolkit with a satisfying magnetic click.

Giveaway: We're giving one set away this week. Reply to this email with the TCG you're playing most right now. We’ll pick a winner Friday and reach out.

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You have more control over a game than you think. Most players give it back without realizing.

By Rahul Reddy

Pokémon is a game that gives you an incredible amount of control. You can search your deck almost every turn, find key resources, map out future turns, and build toward a clear win condition. But despite that, many players make decisions that actively work against their own chances of winning.

Here are three of the biggest mistakes I see players make.

Every card you play should have a purpose.

That purpose does not always have to be massive. Sometimes it is as simple as playing a Buddy-Buddy Poffin to thin your deck and slightly increase your odds of drawing better cards later. But there still needs to be a reason.

A lot of players feel like they always need to be doing something to progress the game state. That is not always true.

Once you use a resource, it is gone. You do not always get that card back later when you actually need it. Holding important resources can create stronger turns down the line and prevent you from running out of options too early.

Before playing a card, ask yourself:

Take a few seconds and answer those questions before committing resources.

A lot of players imagine every possible thing their opponent could have and then start playing scared. This leads to suboptimal decisions and missed opportunities.

The easiest way to avoid doing this is to check your opponent’s discard and see what they’ve played. Once you confirm that then you can go ahead and think about what your opponent did this past turn.

This is how you can gather information and make those calculated risks when you make a play. Too often, players convince themselves their opponent has the perfect answer, even when the resources do not support that conclusion.

Don't have any fear and be bold.

The biggest mistake I see is players not understanding their own deck well enough.

You might be thinking that it’s not that difficult to understand how 60 cards can work, but that’s the beauty of playing a trading card game. Even with the same 60 cards, players can find different lines, different setups, and different ways to win.

You don’t have to be a savant and learn every single thing, but take the time to have a game plan in every matchup.

Before a major event, you should understand:

Your game plan does not have to be perfect, especially at first. But going into game one scenario and simply flailing around is not going to help you improve.

Hopefully this has taught you something about playing the Pokémon TCG, or TCGs in general. Be more confident and think before you play.

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